ALMATY - A Russian space rocket carrying a Japanese satellite crashed on Thursday after blasting off from a launch pad in Kazakhstan, the Emergencies Ministry said.

The unmanned Proton-M booster with the Japanese JCSAT-11 communications satellite on board crashed into open countryside after lifting off from the Baikonur cosmodrome, it said.

No one was injured.

"The tentative place of the crash is 40 km (25 miles) to the south-west of the city of Zhezkazgan," the ministry said in a statement, referring to an industrial town in the centre of the Central Asian state.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was visiting Zhezkazgan at the time of the crash, a presidential administration official told Reuters.

The emergencies ministry said the accident was caused by an engine malfunction. Proton rockets are filled with highly toxic fuel and its crash could cause environmental damage.

The accident is likely to add to tension between Russia and Kazakhstan over Baikonur, rented by Russia under a contract. Kazakhstan suspended launches from Baikonur pending an investigation into the crash, Russian television reported.

Kazakh officials have long complained of environmental damage caused by the launches, and want to bring them under Kazakh control.

The main Russian control centre near Moscow could not immediately be reached for comment.

Speaking to reporters in Astana, Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov said he had ordered the creation of a state commission to investigate the crash.

"Whoever is to blame for this will be identified and the damage done to our country's environment will be compensated for by those who violated it," he said.

Japanese satellite broadcasting firm Sky Perfect JSAT Corp said separately that the crash would not affect broadcasting services because the satellite was supposed to replace a reserve satellite.

Russia plans on using a similar proton rocket to launch satellites for its GLONASS project, a rival to the United States' GPS satellite navigation system, but an industry source told the Interfax news agency after the crash that the launch could be delayed.